PS 3523 
.E879C8 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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Text Book of the Past 
Grand Eminent Guards 
of the Question Club, 
adopted at Midsum- 
mer Meeting, Narra- 
gansett Pier, September 
Eighth, Nineteen Hun- 
dred and Fourteen. 



.??? 



Copyright, 1914, by 
Seneca G . Leujis 



THE 
CYCLES 



Theme by j^ 

Seneca GjXewis 

Interpretative Verse by 

C. p. McDonald 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 



T'qB^^^ 



6'?']^ 



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IH^ 



DEC 26 3914 

'CI.A388954 



FIRST CYCLE 



Abandon of Youth 



'Today — live for it!- — 

O an empty thing 
This Future isf 



Ueride my Creed — my Doctrine- 

if you will, 
Yet I must nurture 

my opinion still: 
Futurity demands 

no thought of mine- 
It has no mission 

that I should fulfill. 



II 



If, living for the present, 

I must deign 
Feel qualms of Conscience 

for the moment's gain, 
Repenting later 

and entramrael Life — 
Ah, then, for me, Life shall 

have dawned in vain ! 



Ill 



Kxis 



istence is equivocal. 

To shed 
Salt-tanged and barren tears 

for what's ahead 
Would be to misconstrue 

what all the Gods 
Of Joy and Laughter 

have interpreted. 



IV 



VVhilebroadandclearmy vision is- 

and vast — 
Though some new-gotten prize 

should be my last, 
For me the Present 

is where'er I stand 
And watch the Future 

fuse into the Past. 



V 

1 he rose that sheds its blood 

in Motherhood 
That Beauty 

may be freely understood, 
Is plucked and dies, 

although the bud lives on, 
Nor knows the World is naught 

but just and good. 



VI 

Xomorrow comes, cloaked 

in her fairest guise, 
New Worlds of Gain, to conquer 

in her eyes; 
We meet, and, Lo — 

her raiment cast asi(ie- 
We find that Age 

has coveted the Prize. 



VII 

1 cannot be as sanguine 

as the Sun, 
Who, when the sands of Day 

have fully run, 
Sinks with a blood-red gleam 

of Days to be— 
I live this Day — 

there is no other one. 



VIll 

ilow oft I sneer 

to view the brutal strife 
Man makes for Gain 

to soothe the Future Life, 
Pregnant with lust 

to foul his fellow dust 
In marts where cunning, 

fraud, and sham are rife. 



IX 



Yo 



ou speak to me of Hell! — 

There is no Hell 
Save in that brain where Hope 

has ceased to dwell ; 
Where Reason beats 

its bleeding wings against 
The strained, revolting 

confines of its Cell. 



JTlell is Man's heritage, 

you sadly say, 
Because he blindly falters 

on the way 
To what may be! — 

Oh, all-wise as you are, 
Can you prove this to me?— 

I cry you nay ! 



XI 



1 he 



Days to come ? — 

The Monarch on his throne, 
Aweary of uncertainty, 

has grown 
Vo look ahead, 

anticipating Fate, 
F'orgetful of the Joys 

he might have known. 



XII 



T., 



le hand that wields the Scepter 

often shakes 
Before the aftermath of laws 

it makes, 
For Life asks usury 

for what it gives — 
Giving but little 

for the toll it takes. 



XIII 

X he King — but human — 

shorn of pomp would be. 
The Queen of her illusions 

would be free 
To seek the boon of peace 

her subjects find, 
Unshackled by the 

chains of pageantry. 



XIV 

Dut, no — the King and Queen 

have seen the Hand 
Upon the Wall, 

and likened its command 
Unto abandoned Hope, 

yet fain ratist live 
The fettered Life 

Futurity has planned. 



XV 



1 rate of 



this Future, 

you who cannot see 
Beyond the confines 

of this Mystery 
Called Life, relinquishing 

your subtle claim 
To what is Now 

for what you trust zvill be! 



XVI 



The 



savage tribesman, 

on his barren isle, 
Scoflfs at the 

malady of Afterwhile 
He knows he lives Today ^ 

and, knowing this, 
Comes to the Later Day 

with artless guile. 



XVII 

1 he beasts of burden, 

toiling year by year, 
That Man may prosper 

and allay his fear 
Of later drought, 

moil on without complaint, 
Ambitionless, resigned, 

as Death draws near. 



XVIII 



X, 



he birds of passage, 

with their hearts atune 
With dripping song 

to be forgotten soon, 
Fly on and on until, 

their pinions limp 
With Age, they pass 

into that Endless Swoon. 



XIX 

1 he honey bee 

that feasts upon the Rose 
Of Paradise that by 

Life's pathway blows, 
Sips of its fill 

until the night draws on, 
Then passes as the 

wilting petals close. 



XX 

Ahe fawn that treks 

the jungle, innocent 
Of Omnipresent Doom, 

is all-content 
To live its span, 

predestined though it is 
To be by mightier fauna 

torn and rent. 



XXI 



Th. 



le tragedies that fill 

the lives of those 
Born to the vaunted 

purple oft disclose 
The miseries that come 

from knowing that 
The prick of thorns 

is hidden by the Rose. 



XXII 



D 



umb brutes, who answer 

to your beck and call, 
Straining the leash 

of bondage till they fall 
To lifeless Clay — 

how sadder they than you 
Who speak of Future Hell 

in fear withal ! 



XXIII 



w, 



hat care they for the 

coming of the years ? 
Harassed by none of 

Mankind's greatest fears, 
They fill their niche in ignorance, 

then pass 
Unmourned, unloved from out 

this Vale of Tears. 



XXIV 

VV hile you, who feel mine 

is the greater loss 
Because I sift pure pleasure 

from the dross 
Of Sweet Existence, 

stagger on your way 
Beneath the weight 

of Future's leaden Cross. 



XXV 

lour mind-born Creed — 

the Toy of Fickle Fate! 
Shaped in the effigy 

of Hope, to sate 
A brain bewarped 

by Faith intangible- 
Why should it, cast with mine, 

preponderate ? 



XXVI 

lou strive, you scheme, 

you barter to achieve. 
That you may be adjudged 

by what you leave 
When Life is finished, 

fearing that disdain 
Of those who reach the heights 

for which you grieve. 



XXVIl 

JLou pass and, for the nonce, 

Men say Success 
Has whdWy crowned your efforts; 

but the stress 
Of their applause 

is for the chattels you 
* Have left— your crumbling Clay 

is valueless. 



XXVIII 

i>3eek not to lead me 

to that Future Day 
Of which you prattle 

in the awkward way 
Of new-born babes; but, 

rather, let me tread 
The perfumed highway of Today, 

I pray. 



XXIX 

Irate not of Knowledge 

you will never know 
Beyond the compass 

of beliefs that flow 
As variable as winds 

upon the wastes 
Of desert lands and seas — 

'tis better so. 



XXX 

loday— live for it ! — 

Oh, an emptv thing 
This Future is of which 

you bHthely sing! 
Fill up the Cup of Gladness 

while you may, 
Enjoy that sweet abandon 

it will bring! 



XXXI 

If I might know that some day— 

when, who knows? — 
My Life would bloom 

and blossom as the Rose, 
What would it matter?— 

I would still embrace 
The Joys the Present 

and Today disclose. 



XXX II 

1 still would hold, clutched tigfhtly 

to my breast, 
The Pleasures of the Now, 

each moment dressed 
In more alluring raiment — 

find the Prize 
That you, in Future Days, 

have faintly guessed. 



XXXIIl 

If, in ray lethal Creed, 

1 clutch the skirts 
Of Momentary Joy, 

who gaily flirts 
Before mine eyes and taunts me 

to my Doom, 
What matter if 

the outcome sadl}^ hurts? 



XXXIV 



Ah, c. 



:all me what you will- 
base, dissolute — 

Because your Liturgy 
I dare refute! 

The vines of Present Pleasures 
droop beneath 

A bounteous yield— 

I fain would pluck the fruit . 



XXXV 

JVly Cup of Life 

I rim-fill with Today, 
And drive Dull Care 

upon his trackless way; 
Call in the Piper, Joy, 

and seek surcease 
From Future thoughts— 

nor reckon on the pay. 



SECOND CYCLE 



Doubt of Maturity 



What you, in other Days, 
were wont to say, 

That deeds, well done, 

reflect the Future Day 

I now can grasp.'' 



XXXVl 

W hen years relentlessly 

roll on and on, 
Youth's fading Cycle 

blends into the dawn 
Of ripened Age, and, Lo — 

the heart brims o'er 
With memories of days 

forever gone. 



XXXVII 

Ahe Cynic, freed of 

arrogance, forswears 
The tangled preachments 

that Life's fulness bares 
Casts out the frail 

abandonment of Y^outh, 
While Doubt enmeshes 

Reason unawares. 



XXXVIII 

A he vision broadens 

as the years expand ; 
Hope checks the angered blow 

aimed by the hand 
Of ravished Fate, 

and Faith renews the song 
That Younger Years 

could never understand. 



XXXIX 

What you, in other Da^-s, 

were wont to say, 
That deeds, well done, 

reflect the Future Day, 
1 now can grasp — in part — 

yet, let me ask, 
Does living wholly 

for the P'uture pay ? 



XL 

Xoday, for me, is with 

Life's pleasures fraught, 
The sweet quintessence 

of contentment, caught 
From out the Past,— 

Must I, then, cast aside 
Those pleasures and 

consider them as naught ? 



XLI 

V^an 1, once having run 

the gamut of 
All earthly Joys, 

embracing Hate and Love, 
Turn from that Past 

with Conscience all-serene. 
Discarding it as fares a 

tattered glove ? 



XLII 

If 1, repentant, 

now should bravely seek 
That fair Futurity 

of which you speak, 
Forget the tenets 

of those other Days, 
Would not the World 

at once proclaim me weak? 



XLIII 

VJonld it accept me, 

I, who always sought 

Destruction of those temples 
Faith had wrought 

Within your breast- 
accept me, who renounced 

The broader Creed that 

greater minds have taught? 



XLIV 

Is not the World 

suspicions of the Man 
Who, in his early years, 

revised the plan 
Of Looking^ Forward, 

skeptical of all 
Who preached the Gospel 

of the Coming Clan? 



XLV 



VJould it, 



without compunction, 

welcome me 
Within the fold 

of that Futurity 
To which I always lent 

a deafened ear, 
Blind to the things 

that blinder men could see? 



XL VI 

1 doubt it!— Man, though human, 

cannot take 
The barren word 

of one who would forsake 
The wayward Creed of Youth 

and hold within 
His Soul the Light 

his betters strive to make. 



XLVII 

XVepentance cloaks the cowardice, 

I claim, 
Of one who has been seared 

within the Flame 
Of Blind Conceit; and, scorched, 

cries out : "Oh, Youth, 
What follies are committed 

in thv name!" 



XLVIII 

llow oft I seek 

communion with my Fate, 
When, menaced by Remorse, 

I, trembling, wait 
Beside the Road of Hope — 

but all in vain, 
For Fate, all-unrelenting, screams, 

"Too late! " 



XLIX 

iweet Faith, cursed by the 

Wanderlust, sways on 
To dizzy heights, turns, 

beckons— and is gone. 
I struggle after, 

buffeted anon 
By Doubt and by Despair— 

their helpless pawn. 



1 sometimes think, when 

Doubt assails mj- brain, 
That, after all, 

Life is an endless chain 
Of vag^ue regrets — the fruits 

of maddened strife 
Man makes to pilfer 

Honestv of Gain, 



LI 



Fain 



would I be 

of service to the Creed 
You oft espoused, 

for now I feel the need 
Of such support ; yet Conscience 

prompts the thoug-ht: 
Too long I failed 

contributing my meed. 



LII 

Is it within the scope 

of Reason 1 
Can flaunt my record 

of the Days gone by 
Before your sect 

in due repentance, and 
Expect that Screed 

in one brief hour to die ? 



LIII 

A he bird, so sweet of call, 

so fleet of wing, 
That greets the dawn of 

each new morn of Spring, 
If in that Spring 

its wings are broken, can 
It fly in Summer 

or as sweetly sing ? 



LIV 



V^aii 1, 



my Spring ill-spent 

as Fancy willed, 
My Soul this moment 

by its mem'ries thrilled, 
Come, in the Summertime of Life, 

to you 
And own my Youthful Mission 

unfulfilled? 



LV 

When I unto your portals 

late had strayed, 
And on the heartstrings of your Trust 

had played, 
Could you accept me 

but for what 1 am, 
And welcome me 

with Conscience unafraid? 



LVI 

l\h, could I feel, 

without a tinge of Doubt, 
I might embrace that Creed 

I used to fiout, 
And know that Faith 

in which you now rejoice, 
Then would I put the Past Reproach 

to rout! 



LVII 



But, 



having lived that Past 

for Self alone 
And toppled thoughts of others 

from the throne 
Of Reason, 1 am knouted 

by Despair, 
Who jeers: "Why this late Day 

seek to atone?" 



LVIII 

l\nd why," Doubt queries, 

"undertake to throw 
Away the Fruits 

you struggled long to know 
And now possess, 

for something undefined? — 
Accept the gifts of Youth — 

'tis better so ! 



LIX 

l/or," Doubt continues, 

"Future is a dream 
Whose dogma is 

o'ershadowed by the gleam 
Of Present Life — 

why dawdle for a Prize 
As vague as blurred 

reflections in a stream? 



LX 

-L/o.ot Life of its abundance — 

take your fill 
Of Earthy Joys, 

let Future score the bill. 
Cram the voracious maw 

of Now with spoils 
Of Selfishness— 

for Virtue's pay is nil ! ' 



LXI 



l^o," gently ui 



irges Reason ; 
"Life is fleet, 
And one must mortar 

bitter with the sweet. 
Once having sipped 

the tang of Folly, why 
Abandon Hope, 

acknowledging Defeat ? 



LXII 

VV hen one has drunk 

his fill of false Desire, 
Infertile Doubt proclaims 

that to aspire 
To nobler things were vain — 

yet Conscience feeds 
Its twigs of faith 

to Hope's eternal fire! 



LXIII 

P 

1 luck anchor from 

the Harbor of Despair 
And for Futurity's Domain 

now fare. 
What matter though the way 

be tempest-tossed? 

A little while, and 

you are sheltered there! 



LXIV 

What?" argues Doubt. 

"Renounce the Gains of 

years, 
A sacrifice to 

palliate he jeers 
Of Days to be— 

because the palinode 
Of Pagans has found 

echo in vour fears? 



LXV 



Oucl 



•h thoughts out-Herod Life. 

Youth's rainbow swings 
Its arched magnificence 

for what it brings 
The Day that is ! —When 

Death draws on apace, 
What care you for 

the song the Future sings?' 



LXVI 

l\h, thus assailed, 

I turn to you for Light, 
That you may guide 

my vagrant steps aright ! 
Doubt, Reason, and Despair 

their preachments bring, 
And all convincingly 

their tenets cite. 



LXVII 



iVlatnrer V( 



rears have taught me 

many things: 
'Hie heart is saddest that 

most blithely sings ; 
There is no recompense 

for wasted Youth 
Save greater Wisdom 

patient Future brings. 



LXVIU 

let, having reaped the harvest 

I have sown, 
Can 1, all self -existent, 

illy-grown, 
Illume your World 

and share the manifold 
Endowments I should 

long ago have known ? 



LXIX 

What's done is done! — 

To knock upon the gate 
Of your Belief, 

I fear it is too late ; 
My Courage fails — 

I ever must remain 
A Parasite for Doubt 

to castigate ! 



LXX 

JVly Future! — dark, 

abysmal, fathomless! 
My Hope of nobler deeds 

in Doubt's duress! 
My path entangled 

by puissant Fear, 
My Soul denied the boon 

of Faith's redress! 



THIRD CYCLE 



Wisdom of Age 



'Sans Creeds, Beliefs — 

let me each Day be swayed 
By one desire — 

e'en now too lon^ delayed: 
To practice Human Kindness.'' 



LXXI 

l\s one who rouses 

from imperfect sleep, 
Or, cured of blindness, 

sees the mighty sweep 
Of rising sun, so Wisdom 

springs from years, 
Belated faith 

with dawning Age to keep. 



LXXII 

ilope, dashed and bruised on 

Youthtime's heedless sea, 
Comes limping 

to the call of Destiny. 
From out my breast 

Despair and Doubt depart, 
And Faith, so long- held captive, 

now is free. 



LXXIIl 

VJome," whispers Conscience; 

"Life is short, forsooth, 
In which to extripate 

the lapse of Youth; 
To turn from those entanglements 

and seek 
The cyclic Wisdom 

later born of Truth. 



LXXIV 



Th 



he World applauds the man 

who finds the ways 
Of rectitude— 

who struggles long to raise 
The standards of Achievement, 

and who strives 
To leave behind 

his sterile Yesterdays. 



LXXV 

A he Springtime Cycle, 

when the heart beats young" 
And Future speaks to us 

in aUen tongue, 
Must swing in its predestined orbit, 

while 
'Jlie paeans of Good Deeds 

are left unsung. 



LXXVl 

JPor Man, subservient 

to Present's sway, 
Precursor of a 

sometime Better Day, 
Is but a potsherd 

of the F'uture Life, 
United— later — 

with the Mother Clay 



LXXVII 

V>^ne errs in early Years 

when Fancy flings 
Her peripatetic dictum 

to the wings 
Of Youth's abandon ; 

for one cannot hear 
The song of Faith 

the Conscience softly sings. 



LXXVIII 

Out when, at last, 

the flush of Wisdom sweeps 
Into the Soul, and 

Life its mandates keeps, 
Man rouses from his lethargy 

and finds 
The boon of deeds — 

for Faith no longer sleeps. 



LXXIX 

Cj ome now into that Knowledge 

vast and wide 
Which, by Youth's blurred decree, 

I was denied, 
1 joyously accept 

Life's profifered hand. 
My visionary Creeds 

all cast aside. 



LXXX 

J. o falter by the way 

is human — yet 
When one uproots the sprig's 

of deep Regret, 
Transplanting Hope 

into the veins of Life, 
Faith's gleaming star 

can never sink nor set, 



LXXXI 

Jje Kind! — Oh, phrase 

with promise opulent! 
Ornate with Love, 

Devotion, Heart-Content ! 
Youth-scorned, you limn Life's 

Falltime with the hues 
Of Blessedness 

beyond Earth's firmament! 



LXXXII 

Jje True!— Oh, words that drip 

with sweet repose, 
Perfume Existence 

with the scent of rose! 
Ignored in Springtime, 

take my trembling hand 
And guide the way 

until my Life shall close! 



LXXXllI 

Jje Charitable ! — 

Oh, a thousand ways 
1 picture to myself 

those empty days 
Self-centered, 

when I lifted not a hand 
To help Mankind 

from Trouble's venal maze! 



LXXXIV 

l/aith, let me, full-repentant 

walk with you 
In Charity's fair garden 

drenched with dew, 
And find that sweet Soul-solace 

thriving there 
Which, in those fruitless days, 

I never knew ! 



LXXXV 



H 



.ope, steadfast, merciful, 

within my breast 
No longer grow the weeds 

of vague unrest. 
With you and Faith 

I face Futurity, 
My life indeed 

a Heaven doubly blessed! 



LXXXVI 

kJweet Charity, whose name 

ray lips ne'er framed 
In olden days, 

I come now, unashamed, 
Accepting of your bounty, 

asking naught 
But healing of the Heart 

so early maimed ! 



LXXXVll 

1/aith, Hope, and Charity — 

though late the Day, 
I come to you 

deep homage now to pay: 
In humble supplication, 

bow before 
Your shrine, to find 

whatever peace I may. 



LXXXVIII 

IVline eyes, unveiled, 

now see the glory-dawn 
That long ago 

they should have feasted on. 
Mine ears, attuned 

to hear the Future song, 
Are deafened to the Ages 
past and gone. 



LXXXIX 



H 



enceforth my every deed 

I consecrate 
To you, that you may 

judge and estimate 
The depth of my repentance, 

and may know 
No longer do I doubt 

the ways of Fate. 



xc 

ians Creeds, Beliefs- 
let me each day be swayed 

By one desire — 

e'en now too lonjj delayed: 

To practice Human Kindness, 
and to bear 

My Cross adown the path 

Content has made. 



XCI 

x\nd let me struggle 

upward toward the J^ight 
Of Peace, in all its 

majesty and might, 
Through deeds that serve to 

gladden saddened hearts 
And lead them through Despair's 

deep shadowed Night. 



XCll 

Ihe Helpin^^ Hand! — 

Oh, frag-ments that remaiu 
Of wasted Life, 

yon ranst allay the pain 
Of those who follow 

in yonr early steps, — 
Sift chaff of Donbt from 

Trnth's endnring^ Crrain! 



XCIII 

X hough Wisdom blooms 

impassioned with the wane 
Of fleeting Life, 

as sunshine follows rain, 
One deed of Kindness 

dissipates the clouds 
Of Sorrow that from 

Younger Days remain. 



XCIV 

JL'eeds are not reckoned 

by the flight of Days, 
Nor by the salvos 

nor tumult of Praise, 
Nor Human Kindness 

by its magnitude — 
The World rewards Mankind 

in fitter wavs. 



xcv 

X oday— time-wise — 

1 fare the Lighted Way 
From out the forest 

of my Yesterday, 
Rejoicing in 

the blessed Doctrine of 
'J'he Helping Hand 

in Trouble's fevered fray 



XCVl 



X hough 



igh Age comes on, 

'tis not too late to start 
To heed the promptings 

of a lightened heart. 
The Fellowship of Man 

is made complete 
When each plods ou 

and fills his given part. 



XCVII 

Xhe burdens of the Weak 

are for the Strong; 
The sore of heart 

are gladdened by a song; 
The Happy Man is he 

who scatters seeds 
Of lasting goodness 

as he goes along. 



XCVIIl 

xour Creeds— what are they? — 

Shallow things, indeed, 
When acts, not words, 

are what the helpless need. 
The World is small 

and has no place for those 
Who swathe their errors 

in the skirts of Creed! 



XCIX 



Op. 



'aith! O Hope! O Charity 

I hold 
No brief against the Life 

that now is old, 
Since \'ou, all-bountiful, 

have shared with me 
The Wisdom you in Youthtime 

left untold ! 



iJehind, a barren Past ! — 

Before, fair days 
That 1 shall pass 

in Wisdom's joyous ways, 
With here and there 

a pause to lift some Soul 
From out the gloom 

Despondency may raise. 



CI 

JVly Future Days 

in honest purpose spent 
In Human Kindness, 

broad, beneficent, 
I shall have lived 

to see the sands of Life 
Run out their course in Wisdom— 

all-content. 
TAMAM 






